Information visualization permits analysts to gain insights that might otherwise escape them. Albert Einstein conducted a gedanken in which he visualized himself riding a beam of light and thereby achieved an insight that led to the development of the theory of relativity. Although typical information visualization applications are far more prosaic, they nevertheless provide important insights into understanding complex data, permitting analysts to, literally, see patterns within the data. With the advent and proliferation of computer networks, particularly the Internet, widespread groups of analysts may gain access to complex data for various forms of reduction. Advances in the Java programming language and in web browsers (the terms web, world wide web, WWW, Internet, and Internet II will be used interchangeably herein for convenience of explanation) allow the use of more advanced forms of information visualization through the Internet. For example, WWW versions of scientific publications may allow their readers to interact with, rather than just review, visualizations of data analysis results. Such interactive documents can present graphical results in context, as in a static, hardcopy publication, while at the same time providing an interface for directly accessing and analyzing the data first-hand. In this way, readers can confirm or disprove the author's results as well as explore the data in search of additional insights. This type of interactive document with embedded, contextual information visualization components may be referred to as a “Live Document”, or LiveDoc, for short. LiveDocs are discussed, for example, by Eick, S. G., Mockus, A., Graves, T. L. and Karr, A. F. (1998), “A Web Laboratory for Software Data Analysis,” In World Wide Web, 1(2), 55-60, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
In spite of their utility, significant impediments to the widespread use of such interactive documents remain. LiveDocs tend to be more difficult to compose than traditional static documents. In addition to the traditional tasks associated with writing a static document, a prospective LiveDoc author may be required to master a new programming language, design a user interface, and incorporate various LiveDoc features in the document. For many potentail LiveDoc authors, these additional burdens are a prohibitive distraction from their primary focus, such as conducting research on the content of their documents.
Not only may LiveDocs be more difficult to compose, they may be more difficult to use. Some web-based interactive visualizations focus on sophisticated, domain-specific views and some appear more like stand-alone applications that happen to be accessible through a web browser. Such visualizations can be limited to their own domains, and may force users to experience long delays downloading complex visualizations. In addition, such views are not designed for distribution in a static form, and they may require a significant expenditure of time learning the system before the users can start to gain insight from data. A reader may only have time to explore the document at a level that is comparable to what may be available from a traditional static document, or a slightly more interactive level. If the LiveDoc interface requires too much of a potential audience, whether because it's inconvenient to learn, data access is too slow, the document presentation is a radical departure from a reader's static document expectations, or for other reasons, the author risks losing a substantial portion of his potential audience.
A system and method that permits an author to create interactive documents with relative ease would therefore be highly desirable, particularly if the documents thus-produced are especially easy to use.